The present invention is applicable to refining or petrochemical processes and in general to any conversion simultaneously using a liquid phasexe2x80x94or at least one hydrocarbonxe2x80x94and a gas phasexe2x80x94a mixture of hydrogen and hydrocarbon vapour fractionsxe2x80x94in thermodynamic equilibrium with the liquid phase. The invention relates to the field of processes functioning, for example, with a ratio of gas to liquid mass flow rates, G/L, normally in the range 0.1 to 10, usually in the range 0.5 to 2. It is of particular application to hydrotreatment processes.
The particular aim of the process is to convert at least a portion of a hydrocarbon feed, for example an atmospheric residue obtained by straight run distillation of a crude petroleum, into light gasoline and gas oil fractions and into a heavier product which can be used as a feed for a more selective conversion process such as fluidised bed catalytic cracking, for example after an intermediate deasphalting step (extraction of asphaltenes using a C3-C7 solvent). The process may also be aimed at converting a distillate obtained by vacuum distillation of an atmospheric residue from crude petroleum into light gasoline and gas oil fractions and into a heavier product which can be used as a feed in a more selective conversion process such as fluidised bed catalytic cracking. The invention also has application in processes for hydrotreating heavy or light hydrocarbon feeds, such as hydrodesulphurisation, hydrodenitrogenation or hydrodearomatisation processes.